by Leila Haven
Then it hit me, a hard blow to the gut that knocked all the air out of my lungs. “Everyone get out of the building! Now!”
My soldiers knew when they needed to follow orders quickly and without hesitation. They all started moving toward the staircase but it wasn’t fast enough for my liking. “Hurry! We need to evacuate. The building is going to blow!”
Everyone surged forward until we were sprinting down the stairs. We had to go two abreast and it seemed like we were taking an interminably long time to get down to the ground level.
I looked around, trying to spot Kincaid in the flow of bodies. She couldn’t get left behind, not if the Taliban had done what I suspected they did.
At the second level, it started.
The first explosion rocked the foundations so hard I had to brace against the wall in order to stay on my feet. Some of my men weren’t that lucky, falling over each other and down a few of the stairs.
We moved faster, our boots hardly touching the ground with the speed. The second explosion wasn’t as much of a surprise but it was still enough to have a significant impact.
I couldn’t see Kincaid anywhere, not even a glimpse of her. The panic was hard to hide. “Where’s Kincaid? Has anyone seen Kincaid?” I shouted over the din of the stomping footsteps. Nobody answered me, except for a few that shook their heads.
She could have been up or down, there was no way to tell where the hell she was. She needed to get out of the building before the whole thing came down. We all did.
Pieces of ceiling were starting to rain down, at first just dust and then in large chunks. We had to dodge them just to keep moving. Watson brought up the rear of the procession.
“Have you seen Kincaid? Was anyone else up there?”
“I don’t think so,” Watson replied. “But there was so much shit falling down I couldn’t see much. This whole place is about to implode.”
“We have to find her.”
“She’s a good solider, she’s probably already out.” If Watson thought my concern was odd, he didn’t mention it. After all, the safety of all my troop was my responsibility, but Kincaid was different. It was a primal concern, one that reached far further than the confines of a superior’s role.
My brain said to keep moving but my heart wouldn’t let me. I turned around and ran upwards, pushing past Watson in my efforts to hurry.
“Hey! It’s too dangerous,” he yelled out to my retreating back.
“I’ll be back,” I shouted in response. “Do a count outside, make sure everyone is accounted for.”
I couldn’t see him but I imagined Watson begrudgingly going down the remaining flights of stairs, shaking his head at my stupidity.
He wasn’t kidding about the condition of the building. Half the building had shifted, creating a chasm down the middle that I couldn’t jump over. Internal walls were crumbling as they were reduced to dust, the explosions still making my ears ring.
The Taliban must have had bombs on every floor, demolishing the building in a synchronized manner to ensure complete destruction.
I was having trouble walking with the constant stress of the building make it shift underneath me. Dust was getting into my eyes, nose, and lungs. I put my hand over my mouth but there was only so much dust I could keep out.
I couldn’t see a thing and my search was quickly getting ludicrous. If Kincaid had been left behind, she could be anywhere and under any pile of debris. Chances were she wasn’t alive.
Yet another explosion and large chunks of the building fell away so daylight could show its face on the inside. I didn’t have much time before being buried myself.
It crushed my soul but I had to get out of there. The only thing I could hope for now was that Kincaid had gotten out with the rest of them. Maybe, by some miracle, she managed to slip past me.
There was more of the ceiling on the floor than above, making every step I took treacherous. I needed to run but one slip and my footing would be lost for good. I moved down each of the stairs as fast as I could possibly go.
A massive wall to my left suddenly crumbled, crashing to the floor and sending out a new wave of dust in my path. There were no lights and the internal staircase was as far from the windows as they could get. If it wasn’t for the light coming in from the cracked and broken walls, I never would have been able to continue.
Screams were coming from the building but I couldn’t place where from. We’d cleared floors so there shouldn’t have been anyone left except us and they definitely weren’t coming from my men.
There had to be a basement.
The captives.
I finally reached the ground floor and burst through the hanging door. Soldiers were standing around, some already helping those that were injured in their escape.
“There are screams coming from the basement, we have to go back in,” I panted out, every word making my lungs burn. I braced on my knees while a coughing fit overcame me, expelling the dust I had coated my throat with.
I still couldn’t see Kincaid through my watery vision. The sun was motherfucking hot, making my uniform cling to the sweat on my back. I would have paid good money to be anywhere but where I was at that moment.
Simon stood forward first. “The building is coming down. It’s too dangerous to go back in. We need to return to base for further orders.”
“No. We need to go back into the building and get the goddamn captives out of the fucking basement.”
Simon shrunk back but I didn’t have time for dramatics. We needed to get moving before the whole structure trapped those people permanently.
“Get ready,” I called out to everyone assembled. “Anyone who can still walk needs to follow me. Those people are not dying today, not on my watch.”
“We should go in from the back,” Watson said. Finally, someone helpful. “It’s less damaged there.”
There were still no signs of Kincaid, even as my team started to fall into lines heading toward the building again. We were all covered in dust, both in shades of white and brown.
“Has anyone seen Kincaid?” I called out as I marched. The men around me shook their heads, some yelling out a ‘no’ from further down the front of the line.
The noise of the building dying and shifting filled the air, alerting everyone in the area to the destruction we had triggered. If they didn’t appreciate our presence before, they certainly wouldn’t now.
There was nothing stable about the building as we went inside again. Support beams crisscrossed our path, making us crouch down to get through. The screams were louder now and appeared to be getting louder the further we walked. We had to be going in the right direction.
The staircase downwards was hidden behind a wall that had crumbled apart in spectacular fashion. We pulled at all the wood and debris to get through but there was more there than we anticipated.
My arms ached with the repetitive strain of removing bricks and concrete. Every scream that echoed upwards spurred me on further.
It wasn’t until we were almost through that I saw her.
Kincaid.
Lying underneath a pile of rubble.
My heart stopped as time seemed to move in slow motion. She wasn’t moving at all, lying as still as a dead body. I’d seen death plenty of times before but they were never people I knew, never people I really cared about.
“Kincaid,” I called out. All the aches were forgotten while I struggled to get to her. There wasn’t one part of me that wasn’t obsessed with reaching her. I needed to feel for a pulse because she sure wasn’t in a position to reply to my pleas.
“The beam holding her down is also keeping up the roof,” one of my men, Cooper, said as he pointed to the offending piece of wood. He was right, which meant getting her out of there was going to be nearly impossible.
“We need to prop up the roof,” I said. Instantly, my men started to get to work. There were plenty of pieces of debris around but not much as tall and strong as what we needed.
I swept
everything off the top of a desk and then pushed it toward the center of the room. It was like an inferno inside, making my hands slick with sweat. I wiped them on my pants and heaved harder until the desk was where I needed it to be.
Others caught onto my plan as we hurried to create a makeshift support beam. The building wasn’t going to last much longer and I would have preferred it if everyone wasn’t still inside when it gave up the ghost.
Pieces of wood stretched from the desk to the roof, they were unstable at best but as good as we could get. We could finally get to Kincaid and remove the beam pinning her in place.
We crouched down along the piece of wood. “On my count, we do this slowly. Three. Two. One.” The beam was heaved from her and placed on the floor, no longer blocking our way.
“Watson, lead a team down into the basement. Simon, Hamilton, stay here and help me. Move, soldiers, now!”
They all jumped to command while I leaned over Kincaid. My hand was shaking as I touched her neck to look for a pulse.
I could feel it. Her heart was beating fainter than it should but it was still working. “Help me get her out of here.”
Simon took her legs while I hooked my hands under her shoulders. Hamilton hovered between us, clearing our path out of the building.
We took her to the front of the property and then crossed the road before I was satisfied we were a safe distance away when the building decided to give up and collapse in full.
Kincaid was gently placed on the ground while I inspected her for injuries. She had a red welt on her head that had been oozing blood at some stage but was now dried. I couldn’t see any other injuries but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
“Get back inside and help the others,” I ordered Simon and Hamilton. They obeyed and took off. I prayed I wasn’t sending them to their death.
I pushed Kincaid’s hair out of her face and made sure she was comfortable. I couldn’t leave her alone while she was unconscious but I hated ordering my men to risk their lives inside while I remained outside. I was pulled in two different directions and told myself I would ordinarily stay with an injured officer no matter who they were. A part of me knew that was a lie.
More minutes ticked by, moving interminably slow. My chest clenched and felt like I was having a heart attack while I prayed for the men to return, for Kincaid to wake up, and everything else that seemed impossible at that moment.
An explosion rocked the building once more. This one was different to the others, it was the final straw. I stood by uselessly watching while it gave a final groan and collapsed in on itself.
The whole building was gone in a matter of seconds. There was nothing left except a gaping hole where it had stood only moments ago.
My whole world stopped.
There were twenty soldiers in that building and an unknown amount of captives in the basement. They were all underneath the crumbled pile of debris as it pressed down on everything in its way.
I ran toward the building, hating myself for leaving Kincaid but desperate to do anything I could for my team. I should have been with them, called them back from the mission before it was too late. I’d failed them all in the worst possible way.
They were all gone.
Chapter 12
Sasha
҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉
My head hurt as I blinked my eyes open. I could see the sky but it was too bright and only made the ache worse. I closed them again and hoped things would be better the next time I tried to see.
The memory of everything that had happened crashed into my conscious thoughts. The screams, the explosion, all the noise as the ceiling collapsed on me. I had followed the screaming voices and they had led me to the back of the building where I didn’t remember much else.
I had no idea how I’d made it outside to lie on the warm ground but I was grateful for it anyway. My head swam as I sat up, the pain making a comfortable home in my temples.
It was impossible not to notice the gap where the target building used to stand. I couldn’t see any other soldiers and my thoughts instantly went dark. Surely they couldn’t all have been in the building when it fell? Everyone was running out when I last saw them. They had to have made it out.
Rafter was one of them. I hadn’t seen him leave but everyone was going, he would have been one of them. He just had to be.
But the building was gone and I was all alone in the middle of a warzone. The Taliban knew we were coming and had laid a trap for us. We’d gone in and played right into their game.
I had to grip the chain-link fence to make it to my feet. Even then I felt unsteady as the world spun around me. My worst fears were being realized as I stared at the crumbled remains of the building.
Nobody could have survived that damage, not if they were within the walls when it happened. Rafter was gone, they were all gone. The same men I had sat with at breakfast that morning, the guys who had hunkered down in the truck with me, the same ones who had gone to Afghanistan to make a positive difference in the world.
All gone.
How did somebody go on after that?
My feet were clumsy as I stumbled forward. I gripped the fence for as long as I could but it didn’t extend over the road. I tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. There may have been some survivors, people trapped that needed my help.
It felt like all the air was being sucked out of my lungs and my heart was being held in a vise but I kept going. I was a soldier, a member of the US Military and I would do my duty. I would make them all proud.
The ground floor of the building was largely standing, the floors above nestled into the walls like Russian nesting dolls. Five stories all squished together in the same area that used to hold only one floor.
It was eerily quiet while I moved, like the whole word had fallen into silence while mourning the dead that had lost their lives. I wondered which of them had saved my life and got me out before the tragedy unfolded. I guessed I would never know.
I had to keep moving, I couldn’t collapse now when somebody might be relying on me. It was time to step up, prove why I deserved to be there. Just one step after another.
The corner of the building was only a few steps away, giving me an extra boost. I leaned against the bricks as I turned and saw the destruction at the back of the building.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
They were all there, my comrades in arms. Exhausted, covered in dust, and helping what looked like the captives they’d rescued. The screams that I had followed must have belonged to them, my instincts had been right.
I couldn’t focus on anything except scanning the faces of those I knew, searching for the one that I really needed to see above all.
Rafter was in the middle of it all, exhausted and triumphant. He was cradling a baby in the crook of his arm while speaking to a woman dressed in filthy brown rags. The child was naked and his chubby face was streaked with the remnants of tears.
We locked eyes for a moment, his registering surprise while mine could only convey relief. He handed the child back to his mother and headed in my direction. I had to fight the urge to run for his arms and never leave them.
I could hardly believe it was really him, even when he was standing in front of me. “Are you okay, Kincaid?”
“Just a little woozy. Is everyone here?”
“We lost Tate.” Rafter’s head hung in shame, even though it wasn’t his fault. “We found him in the debris, he was too close to an explosion. There was nothing we could have done for him, he was already gone.”
“He’ll get a hero’s funeral. He died serving the country he loved.” I’d only spoken to Tate a few times, I never knew what his first name was. It didn’t make his loss any less painful. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. We got them all out. The bastards left two dozen women and kids in the basement to die. They locked them in, even when they planned on blowing up the whole building.”
I hated them. I hated the Taliban and every
thing they stood for. The anger surged through my blood and made it boil. It was a reminder of just how important the job we were doing was.
“Some of them were the same age as my daughter,” Rafter continued. “I couldn’t stop thinking of her when we got them out. If anything like this happened to her…” He let his words trail off but his clenched fists finished his sentence.
If anyone hurt his daughter like that, he would kill them. Every single last one. I could easily imagine how protective of his daughter he was. It was sweet to find that quality in a man. Chloe was a very lucky little girl, she would always have her daddy to keep watch over her.
Rafter took a breath before he turned around to address his troops. “We need to get back to base. Ridley, choose a friend and go get the truck.”
Ridley moved straight away, pointing at Short as he moved. Looking at all the women that had been held by the Taliban, I couldn’t imagine how scared they were. They’d been through so much and now they would have to be processed by the US Military before being released to locals for ongoing assistance.
I helped gather them together, unable to communicate with them in their native language. I’d tried to learn Dari once but had failed miserably. I’d never done well in Spanish class so I didn’t hold high hopes for learning another language in the first place.
The truck ride back was somber and quiet. When we unloaded, I volunteered to help with the captives and stayed with them for the whole process. They would stay on base tonight and then be handed over to the locals tomorrow. They had a difficult time ahead of them.
It wasn’t until dinnertime that I saw Rafter again. He was seated at a table with all his closest comrades. Watson, Simon, and Sampson all sat around as they let off some steam.
I sat with some of the men from our mission today. Nobody talked about what had happened, everyone choose to repress those particular memories. I was one of them, happier to discuss the latest football results than the comrade we’d lost.
Every time I looked over, Rafter was staring back at me. I longed to go to him. When I was in his arms everything just felt safer, like we would be able to go home one day and forget about all the atrocities we’d seen firsthand. I got the feeling it would never be that easy.
